Complaint Review: poetry.com - Owings Mills Maryland

January 2001 - I spent many hours working on a poem and came across poetry.com. Not knowing what I now know about this unethical company, I submitted my poem to enter their sweepstakes. After several weeks, I was notified by mail that I was a semi-finalist and much closer to receiving the myriad of prizes displayed on their web site!! I was so excited as I was just starting out writing poetry and never expected to be recognized for my talent (or lack thereof!). I called up my friends and family to tell them the good news.

After a few weeks I got another letter in the mail congratulating me and offering the opportunity to purchase "The Silence Within", the anthology my poem was featured in for ~$57... supposedly a greatly discounted price from the post-publishing date. My mouth drooled and I promptly sent in the order form...

6 months later I have received nothing, and believe it or not I completely forgot about the anthology until I read a complaint on here about poetry.com. I checked my card statements and was reminded... so I decided to e-mail them.

They were rather unprofessional and sarcastic in their e-mail. Their web site stated the release date for "The Silence Within" is 6/1/01 and that it would be shipped 3-5 weeks later. I was informed that "The Silence Within" was a "working title" and that my poem would no longer be featured in that book, however, it would be shipped July 21, 2001 in a different book called "The World Awaits". I e-mailed them back asking why this happened, and what was to stop them from switching the anthology my poem would appear in the future? They did not answer this question, but instead offered to refund my money if when I received the anthology I was not satisfied.

Since I did not want to wait another 3 months to receive my anthology I told them to refund my money, to which they agreed to. About a week later I got an e-mail from them saying "Sorry, your anthology is near it's ship date and we cannot stop shipment at this point. Please return your anthology and you will be issued your refund".

I was furious. I sent them another e-mail indicating that they had assured me the refund would be issued, made mo mention of any delays in acquiring that refund, nor anything about the ship date being too close.. and I told them I refused to believe they couldn't stop shipment 1 MONTH ahead of the actual release date. I did this in the calmest of manners, as I believe that being profane or rude achieves nothing. I was firm and I told them legal action would not be out of the question if they did not credit my account within 30 days of the day they initially agreed to do so (per Mastercard regulations).

They sent a smart reply back saying "Thank you for your kind response. Your refund will be issued shortly".

And you know what? IT WAS!!! I was amazed.. but if only I knew what I now know about poetry.com, I wouldn't have had to go through this frustration. And had I not requested a refund, I wonder how many more books my poem would have been switched to.. I see I am not alone in having this happen to me. This company may not be doing anything illegal, but it SURE IS UNETHICAL. Telling people they are a select few chosen as semifinalists and publishing EVERY poem they receive is, if not fraud, definitely a pond-scum-like thing to do.

20/20 and abcnews have both done reports on poetry.com (AKA International Library of Poetry). Also, check out this web site.. it has a screen shot of a guy who posted his poetry.com rant demanding a refund and it got posted to their web site! It's pretty funny.. you can post anything there and it will get posted to their web site along with the copyright notice and everything, and you will be sent a notice saying you have been selected as a semi-finalist too. This company is so low...

http://windpub.org/literary.scams/nlp.htm

ALSO BEWARE PICTURE.com aka International Library of Photography. They are the same company!!